Studs Up – GW29

Painful. So painful. The FPL gods threw us one of “them” weeks, immediately after the joy of the previous one. I actually don’t recall one this bad? Let’s just put it behind us and look to planning for some tempting weeks coming up.

Likes

Nothing… Ok. Sunderland. Talk about painful? You’d hate to have been a Sunderland supporter these past few months. After such an encouraging start they fell away badly, and thankfully for them Poyet was moved on. Probably thankfully for Gus too! Liking this because they’ve chosen Advocaat. He’s got to be one of the most experienced coaches in the entire world, maybe ever. But, and there’s always a but, he’s never coached in one of the top leagues. He did coach in Germany, but it wasn’t a BIG league way back then… It’s a risk, slightly more of a calculated one than some other managerial choices this past year however… Loving that his first home game in charge will be the derby against Newcastle! Gus’ first home game in charge was against them too, and they won. He then went on a 3 game bender against their neighbours winning all of them. No pressure… They’ve got the cattle to stay up and Gaffer Dick will get a hefty bonus if they do, but will they? They may be lucky in that there are worse teams below.

Ok, one more. DGW planning. Looking forward it goes like this… Blank, Villa v QPR, blank, possible hell, Leicester v Chelsea, then blanks so far… Austin is always going to be a good pick, but as is Benteke. He may be finally getting back to something like his best with back to back double figure hauls… I’ve found a way to get him in this week, Swansea always have trouble against tall strikers. Still liking Sinclair. There’s a hell week in there too because not only do QPR and Villa miss but also Arsenal and Sunderland with their fixture having been cancelled for the FA Cup Semi’s. When that is to be made up we don’t know at time of print, but could be a nice one to target.

Honourable mentions. Toffees back on track. Aaron Ramsey to come home with a wet sail? Giroud 4 in 4.

Dislikes

Man City. You know what… They don’t want any more results like that! None. There’s a very real risk that they miss out on the Top 4 and that would be disastrous for them. The 3 teams below City that could easily push them aside in Arsenal, United and Liverpool are all in slightly different shades of great form, and City are not. I’ve been banging on about this all season, but City are not a great team. Great players for sure, but they aren’t a team. They have a pretty good run but they’ve been so poor against the lower teams that it’s hard to know what to make of what will happen. Aguero has to come to the party, and quickly. 3 goals in 8 starts is not what we want from our 13m striker. He has to be the man… Yaya has checked out and won’t be at the club next season. The Dzeko/Bony tag team hasn’t done enough. Silva has been immense but can’t do it all himself. Their defence is horrid, 2 cleanies since Christmas. West Brom this week. Tough. Pulis knows exactly what to do against a team like this and their own recent record is all down to him. 6 cleanies in 9! Interesting to see which way Matt goes with his captaincy tips this week! Kun is so overdue it’s not funny…

Honourable mentions. I don’t know where to start with the rest…

Ryan Bennett Award – Ciaran Clark. Villa’s first clean sheet since New Year’s Day was more down to Sunderland than them! Don’t waste your time, even with a DGW coming up.

Jonjo Shelvey Award – Wilfried Zaha. All the potential in the world but none of the focus. He WILL have games like this to give his fans something to point at and show us the potential, but it’s not enough for me.

Jamie Vardy Award – Brown Ideye. Went through a relative purple patch about a month ago… “Relative” in that he did something at all. Fell away a bit recently but has some sort of ability. Isn’t any better than what we have.

Stealth Player of the Week – Boaz Myhill. More of a pre-emptive pick here… I touched on West Brom’s amazing defensive form before and with a minimum 4 week knee injury to No. 1 Ben Foster, Myhill comes straight in. A 4.0m defensive asset who is guaranteed games for a Pulis managed team is bordering on must have! Swerve City this week and you have games against QPR and Leicester at home, then Palace away…

That’s all for this week. Hopefully you stayed away from sharp objects this past day or two and kept your eye on the prize! If it helps, I scored 21… But, up to a clenchingly nerve racking 13th in A League…

25 comments on “Studs Up – GW29”

Well done Baysie! Interesting to see that you’re gonna take a gamble on Benteke. He’s a bit too risky for my liking, I think I’ll play it safe and get Giroud (for Sturridge), although he played the whole game yesterday…
Couldn’t agree more on City. This team is just a collection of individuals, do they really want to try and win the EPL?? Sometimes they remind me of my Paris SG…except that they haven’t done shit in the Champions League so far! (We’ll see how well they do tonight though)

It was actually a good week for me, with Benteke and a couple of cleanies … and well that’s all I needed to have to get a good score for the round. Still outside top 200k, but have actually had green arrows for 10 consecutive weeks! Shows how bad the start was.

I am currently sitting in 3rd in my league and i need to make up about 60 points on the leader so its time to take some risks and cut the fat.

I just dont think Aguero is right at the minute and he doesnt seem to have come back 100% after his injury. He is still getting chances in his games but just doesn’t seem as lethal to finish them. I think I am looking at trading Aguero to Costa who no one seems to have anymore and with the DGW coming up it might be best to get him in early.

Also looking very strongly at Rooney. He looks a different player up forward. He is on Pen duties and Man U are generally good for a goal a game which he seems to be involved in with an assist or banging it in himself. I doesn’t even scare me with their tough run of fixtures coming up i think he will be great no matter what. Hopefully van gaal doesn’t bring RVP or Falcao in though.

Eriksen is the other i will be getting rid of for Henderson who seems to be happy to play stevey g MKII.

Great article! Got to admit I completely forgot about Arsenal and Villa’s FA Cup semi-final fixtures. Was just considering trading Austin out but reckon I’ll hold off on that a couple weeks.

Now that Arsenal is out of the Champions League, we ought to find out soon when their dgw will be, no? I’m in a bit of a tight spot with 3 arsenal players, 1 villa player, and 1 qpr player. Going to be tough managing my trades the next few weeks. No doubt that week looms as a “possible hell”.

Guys, do you think Sanchez is worth keeping? His production hasn’t been justifying the price lately, and I’m thinking switching to Hazard, Chelsea have a better schedule, though I have a feeling Mou will start resting and rotating the squad if he keeps a hefty advantage in next 2-3 rounds….
Or maybe somehow try to squeeze them both in by some magic? (magic = remove Silva or Aguero)
Cheers